This Moto 360 pocket watch should totally be a real thing

While everyone's going gaga over smartwatches, we whip up a bit of the old-school.

Ever since Motorola's first live stream for the Moto 360, there's been this notion buzzing in the back of my head. As amazing as the round design looked on the wrist, the way Motorola had embedded the watch band connectors into the casing with no lugs on either side gave me visions of a smart pocket watch. With our recent exploration into 3D Printing here at Android Central, now seemed like the right time to see what was possible. What happened next was a solid week of tinkering, printing, very nearly destroying a Moto 360, and at last ending up with a functional design that could be used as a pocket watch.

Yes, before you even go there, I am more than aware that a pocket watch with Android Wear functionality would essentially create a use case where you're performing the same pocket grab for a watch as you would a smartphone in order to do less things. I would argue that pocket watches haven't been worn for practicalities sake in a very long time and leave it at that. This is 100 percent a "because I can" kind of experiment, but I'd be lying if I said the end result didn't have me seriously considering wandering around in public with a pocket watch. I'm also not the only one with this idea, in fact there was a Kickstarter for a similar concept in metal instead of plastic. So it's not just me.

Putting together the first attempt for this project was surprisingly easy, due largely to how much work had already been done. A quick look on Thingiverse revealed user Laggylarry and his Paracord band adapter for the Moto 360. The basic cartridge design already existed, so all I needed to do was mess with the existing files in some kind of STL file editor. I initially tried to make the edits through a pair of CAD apps on Android, but found quickly that touch interfaces are really not great for this kind of thing. It's way to easy to be imprecise, and for something as small as this that wasn't going to fly. I moved to my desktop and used SketchUp 2015 instead, which made editing and modifying the existing structure much easier. The first edit attempt was exported to Cura, a desktop app for setting up print filed for the Ultimaker 2 I've been using, and 36 minutes later the first attempt was done.

The first print fit so snugly into the watch band slot on the Moto 360 that I was able to mess around for quite a while without putting the spring bar pin in and locking the cartridge in place. I would up needing a pin that was slightly smaller than the one Motorola includes with the 360, but had one on hand from another watch so it was no big deal. Unfortunately, it didn't occur to me until after the spring bar pin clicked into place that the cartridge was so snug I wouldn't be able to get a tool in to pull that pin back out. This started a 48 hour freak out where I tried everything I could thing of to get the cartridge out of the slot.

Since the back of the 360 is somewhat fragile, I eventually opted to use a warm blade to carve the cartridge out of its slot, destroying it in the process. Much like watch bands that are too thick for this design, the cartridge would need to be more carefully considered. The second design attempt needed to have an appropriate notch cut out to make this easier, which was also surprisingly easy in SketchUp 2015.

With the appropriate changes in place, everything works exactly as it should. Using the Moto 360 in pocket watch form didn't require much of anything in the way of settings changes. Ambient display was disabled since I glancing down at the watch wasn't going to happen when the device was in your pocket, but not much else needed to be changed. Obviously heart rate monitoring isn't going to work, and I do wish the feature could be turned off in settings, but the pedometer seems to work the same way when in my pocket. Holding the Moto 360 in your hand and using your thumb to dismiss notifications is perfectly comfortable, and your average pocket watch chain length is enough that you can speak commands to the watch comfortably without leaning or tugging, though in a crowded or noisy space this is far less likely to be true. That this design is only marginally less practical than wearing the watch on your wrist either speaks volumes to the current limitations of Android Wear, or indicates this wasn't such a crazy idea to begin with. I'll let you decide.

The Moto 360 pocket watch design has been published as a remix on Thingiverse for anyone to try out for themselves, but it is important to remember that 3D Printers aren't always the most precise things on the planet when printing things this small. Tiny errors can completely ruin prints, and if there are any imperfections on the outer edges of the print you run the risk of stress fractures on the bottom of your Moto 360 if you just carelessly jam the cartridge in. Enjoy!

Reader comments

This Moto 360 pocket watch should totally be a real thing

I know people who are asking 'what's the point' are missing the point and mostly its a cool because-we-can project, but I can think of a practical application. For formal or smart events I wear a kilt. A wristwatch spoils the look of a kilt jacket so I like a pocket watch. Your phone can ruin the line of your jacket too so mine goes in my sporan. A smart watch on a chain in my waistcoat pocket is way easier to access than digging my phone out of my sporran.

Pfft. I carry a pocket watch almost every day. Have for years, ever since a door came back and smashed my wrist watch.
I've LOVE a pocket smartwatch. I think this is awesome and hope some manufacturer comes up with an official one. Cool!

Yeah, I read the article, but this defeats the entire purpose of a smart watch. If you want to do something just to do it, how about leaving your house and going for a hike, or climb a mountain. That accomplishes something in the way of exercise at least, besides an exercise in futility, which this pocket smart watch most definitely is.

This is stupid nobody wheres a pocket watch for a reason, if you do you're just trying real hard to use it because you paid for it and feel dumb that its useless. Even if there are kickstarters or whatever this will be a thing for a week and everyone will go back to using their watch like a watch. It's "cool" but impractical for anyone to actually spend time producing.

Umm. I actually have a pocket watch and yes I still use it... it was my great gramps watch and is now over 100 years old. I dont like wearing stuff on my wrists and I dont like to pull out my phone when in a crowded place just to see the time or check what that notification was.

I would love a smart pocket watch as it could still do everything as a smart watch. Battery life would be better as it could go to sleep more often. There is a market for this just like there is still a market for people buying MP3 players or CD's.

In a perfect world this would actually solve the battery life dilemma a lot of smartwatches run into. Imagine a proper smart pocket watch with a flip cover that goes into sleep mode when closed, wakes when the flip cover is opened, and packs a 7 or 800mh battery (as pocket watches can get away with being slightly larger than wristwatches).

Between a bigger battery and spending big chunks of the day in sleep mode you could get Pebble-esque battery life out of a full color traditional android wear device.

I am not a wrist watch person, I just cannot get into it even if its a "Smart" Watch. However a "Smart" pocket watch?!? Heck yeah! I would love to see what multiple manufacturers could come with to get this side of the crowd. I would seroiusly debate with myself why I would need one of these as opposed to a wrist watch (which I say nay to).

>"Ambient display was disabled since I glancing down at the watch wasn't going to happen when the device was in your pocket, but not much else needed to be changed."

Actually, that is not what "ambient screen" mode is. What you need to turn off is "tilt to wake". Ambient screen is simply a setting that means "be more sensitive to movement." With it off, it takes a more deliberate tilt motion to turn on, but it still will. Turning off tilt to wake will completely disable motion waking and require pressing the crown button or touching the display to wake the watch. For some strange reason, you can only get to the "tilt" setting from inside the Wear phone app settings.... it cannot be done from the watch itself.

It is annoying that there isn't just a single setting with a scale that adjusts sensitivity. And it is also annoying that there is no setting to turn off touching the screen to wake, for times when you would just like to press the button only. Oh, since I am on a roll.... it is also annoying there is no option to control how long the display stays on before it goes to sleep.

Kind of awesome. On that point the article makes about this being simply an exercise in 'why not,' I kinda look at smart watches in general with that "Why not just use your phone?" viewpoint anyway. So I fully accept that this isn't necessary, it's just cool.

Sometimes things can be done simply for the sake of style. If the 360 weren't already so thick, I'd have gone the extra mile and made a flip cover for it.

OK, why should it be a real thing? It looks cool, but it's also utterly, abysmally useless. There may be some utility to a smart watch since, although it duplicates functionality you already have in your pocket, in theory allowing you to keep your phone there. But why have something to take out of your pocket to duplicate functionality on something you ALSO have to take out of your pocket. This is the very definition of too much time and money on your hands.

I read it just fine. It was a project just slightly less pointless than, say, you. I don't see much interesting about someone saying hey, look how I can waste time AND get clicks on a website! That's something right out of Boy Genius Report.

My point, in a somewhat more... straightforward way. I could also make my phone sing Daisy like a HAL9000. But that's about as pointless as this. Sometimes reading blogs is like watching 4 year olds showing off their latest crayon art. There's only so much room on the refrigerator for that.

While I love watches and love pocket watches(I own a few) I thought of this very same idea for my Moto 360 but then thought it defeated the purpose. I mean I think on of the best things about smart watches is having your notifications and such right there when you need it without having to pull a device out of your pocket so I decided not to attempt it. :P

Awesome Russell I've been dying to see this after you mentioned it last week on the podcast. It's a little ruff but as a fan of old antiques and antique tech I can really appreciate this idea. I can't wait to get my hands on a 3D printer and get to putting my own ideas into reality.
Hope to see more of the stuff you make man, keep it up. Oh by the way your a great addition to the Android Central team, glad they acquired you.

Well to me it is terrible. Had it replaced twice because the back cracked and couldn't attain the claimed "all day" battery life. Moved onto the G Watch R and wish I never wasted my time with the 360. And with regards to the apple watch, I'm not an apple person, but if I wanted it, $17k would not be an issue

They should include a pocket watch attachment on the next one in addition to other accessories that allow you to get multiple uses out of the device. Add a docking station & the ability to control music & video functions of other devices & you have folks like me who want to use their phones while having another device hooked to an auxiliary port or serving another purpose. They would also work well as simple GPS devises & would take up far less space. They had the right idea when they put Android on a watch. They just limited themselves by only thinking it could work on the wrist.

I don't see the point of this. Wearing it on your wrist you have notifications visible all the time for when your phone is in your pocket or a bag. With this you're still pulling it out to check things.

Useless device but stylish thing. And its ROUND. Squares monitors are everywhere and boring. I've broke my last watch 23 years ago and felt myself watchfree. But this thing reminds me college and I'll buy it just for the desk top ).

I want a full on Android Wear pocketwatch. This is a good first step. Pocket watches are great for weddings and other formal events. Sure it defeats the purpose of A wrist watch. But this is Android Wear... A pocket watch could be part of that ecosystem, but like everything if you don't want to use it then don't.

Reminds me of the time my boss was being sarcastic and said, "You know what would be great? If someone could combine a keyboard and a printer in one device, to make things more efficient." He then handed me a typewriter to finish my work.

White out sucks, especially when OCD and having to start over with a new clean page. I couldn't afford a PC in HS right when PC's were being used and integrated in schools in early 90's, and the computer lab had 20 that were always full and couldn't get on

This. If/Once smartwatches become standalone devices, I could see this being kinda cool. I think someone else made a good point about using it at more formal events, but again, not until it's standalone.